Aftershocks (12 page)

They were now rebeling against me.

Connor reached out and pinched my tricep, making me wince. He just smirked. “No, I was thinking of something more along the lines of observing.”

I gave him a questioning look wondering what he was planning to observe.

“Colege footbal is on today!” He sounded like a kid at Christmas. “We’re going to watch a game.”

“Okaaay,” I said slowly.

“Oh, it’l be fun. Ohio State is playing USC – Southern California, not South Carolina,” he said, and I found it endearing that he remembered that I had connections to the east coast USC. “The Trojans are supposed to be realy good this year.”

Was I supposed to know what that meant? I feigned understanding. “Oh, yeah, I know.”

Connor raised an eyebrow at me.

“Okay, I confess, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, giving in to my shortcomings.

“Come on, I’l show you,” he said, as he led me into the living room.

He sat down on the couch and flipped on the TV. Conveniently it was already tuned to ESPN since that was where my dad got most of his news. He’d been watching the highlights from the week before my mother had dragged him off to a local art festival earlier that morning.

“Okay, see the red and gold team?” Connor asked, pointing to the TV. I nodded. “That’s USC. They’re realy good.”

“Okay, USC is good. Got it.”

“The other team, the guys in red and gray, that’s Ohio State. They’re also realy good. It’s one of the best rivalries of the year. The Big Ten vs. the Pac Twelve.”

I looked confused again, so he explained about colege conferences, who was good, what their strengths were and what teams played in them. I was thoroughly confused by the end, so I decided to just focus on the game and see what happened.

“Who are we rooting for?”

“Wel, my Dad went to Michigan–”

“He did?” I interrupted, my face lighting up.

“Yeah,” Connor said, giving me a quizzical look. “Why are you so excited?”

“That’s where I’m planning to go next year,” I said, smiling at him.

A slow smile spread across Connor’s face as he registered what I’d said. “Seriously?”

I nodded. “Yeah. My best friend goes there, so we have this whole plan to room together next year. He’s freshman this year, and he already loves it.”

Connor’s expression changed for moment. “Your best friend is a guy? I thought Nicky was your best friend?”

I shook my head. “Nicky and I just started hanging out this summer. Wyatt’s been my best friend since I was twelve. He’s realy cool.”

“Is he your boyfriend?” Connor asked, and it seemed like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer.

“Oh, God no,” I said, putting extra emphasis into my statement. “No way. I’m completely single, and he’s completely gay.”

Connor gave me a questioning look again. “Like your step-brother?”

“He is my step-brother,” I said, realizing I’d just thoroughly confused him. “Okay, so I realy just cal him my step-brother since he lived with us last year, but we’re not related at al. I’ve just known him forever, and we’re realy close. When he moved in, it was sort of fun to pretend we were related. He’s a year older, so he always caled me his little sister.”

“Okay then,” Connor said, and I realized that I’d just shared a ton of information with him.

“Okay, so back to the original question. Who are we rooting for?”

Connor focused again. “USC. Since I am a Michigan fan, I hate Ohio State.” He sounded sort of deflated since we’d taken a major detour to get to the final answer.

“Are you applying to Michigan?” I asked, keeping the hope out of my voice as much as I could.

“Yeah, but I think I’l end up back in Austin. UT’s awesome school, and it’s a lot warmer there than in Ann Arbor.”

I laughed. I was used to winters. New England was famous for them, so the Midwest couldn’t be much worse.

Connor nudged me, nodding toward the TV. “The game’s starting.” I could see the excitement had returned to his face. It was realy cute how into this he was.

“Go Trojans!” I said as the game started, proud that I remembered their mascot. I’d seen him riding down the sidelines with his sword raised.

“This is a big game,” Connor went on to explain, “because Ohio State is ranked #2 and USC is ranked #3. The way it works is that whoever loses gets knocked down to a lower ranking and has less of a chance of making it to the National Championship in January.”

He was so cute. I wanted to just squeeze him. As soon as the game got started, Connor realy got into it. He would high-five me whenever USC did something good or Ohio State did something bad. I just loved his exuberance.

At halftime I volunteered to get us some snacks while he caught up on what else was going on in colege footbal. While I was in the kitchen making some popcorn the home phone rang.

“Hey bro,” I said when I saw it was Aaron on the caler ID.

“Hey squirt,” he said, and I just roled my eyes. “What’s happening?”

I smiled. He was going to love what I was doing in that moment. Growing up my dad and Aaron had watched footbal every weekend.

They’d tried to get me and my mom to watch with them but we always found something else to do while they were glued to the TV.

“I’m watching USC play Ohio State,” I said, proud that I remembered the names of the teams.

“Say what?” he asked, and I could hear the shock in his voice.

“I’m watching footbal,” I said, leaning against the counter.

There was a few seconds of dead air before Aaron responded. “With Dad?” he asked, and I thought I heard what I detected as hurt in his voice and felt instantly guilty.

“No,” I said quickly. “The parents are at some art festival. I’m watching with my friend Connor.”

“Oh, no you’re not,” he said quickly, his protective instincts kicking in when he realized I was alone in the house with a boy. “Tel him to leave.”

I roled my eyes. “Aaron, stop it. We’re just friends.”

“Bulshit. That boy wants to get in your pants.”

The microwave chose that moment to alert me that the popcorn was done, as if punctuating Aaron’s statement.

“Aaron!” I said, ignoring the popcorn, my face blushing red at the thought of what he’d just suggested. “Shut up! He does not. We’re just hanging out.”

Aaron laughed out loud. “How old is he?”

“Seventeen,” I mumbled, knowing where the conversation was headed.

“Does he play on my team or Wyatt’s?”

“Yours,” I mumbled.

“He wants to get in your pants,” Aaron said, completely serious. “Let me talk to him.”

“No!” I screamed, probably louder than necessary. I lowered my voice. “No way. He has a girlfriend.”

“Then what’s he doing hanging out with you?”

I didn’t have an answer to that question. I had no idea why Connor had come over to hang out with me when his girlfriend, was obviously home with nothing better to do than cal people she wasn’t friends with and harangue them.

“How are your classes? How’s Leah? How’s Tommy? How’s the weather?” I asked, figuring if I asked enough questions he would forget what he’d asked me.

Aaron proceeded to fil me in on his first week back at school, complete with the news that Leah had told him she loved him.

Apparently she had been Skyping with her parents one night while Aaron was over, and he’d decided to say helo. It was evident by their faces that Leah had never told them that Aaron wasn’t white. They proceeded to ask her what a colored boy was doing in her apartment to which she responded in kind that said colored boy was her boyfriend.

An argument ensued that only ended when Leah screamed at her parents that she loved Aaron and she didn’t care what the color of his skin was. She told her parents they would just have to get over it and slammed her laptop closed. Aaron said he was so taken aback by her reaction to her parents that he forgot to get upset about being caled the ‘N’ word. He just puled her into his arms and kissed her, teling her loved her too, and I wanted to cry right there on the spot, equaly because someone had caled my brother such a disturbing word, but also because he was in love, and I was a total sucker for love stories.

Aaron waxed on for a few minutes about how happy he was with Leah, and how her defending him to her parents made him love her that much more. Then he spent the next few minutes teling me al the reasons I needed to come down to visit him. I told him I’d think about it, knowing our parents would only approve if they could go with me, and I wasn’t psyched about that idea.

Before we hung up, Aaron said, “Keep that boy in check, Abby. Make sure he knows that you’ve got a brother who won’t hesitate to kick his ass if he tries anything with you.”

“Okay, Aaron. Love you,” I said hastily, before hanging up.

By the time I remembered the popcorn, it was half-cold, so I started to pop a new bag. Connor must have realized I’d been gone for a close to twenty minutes because he came into the kitchen looking for me. I turned around to face him, suddenly apprehensive about him being in my house.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, trying not to sound accusatory.

“I wanted a soda,” he said, not understanding my question.

I reached into the fridge and handed him a Coke. He leaned against the counter as he popped it open and appraised me from across the room. I was eyeing him, not sure what to say next.

“I take it that wasn’t what you were realy asking.”

I nodded. “You have a girlfriend, Connor. And you have a lot of guy friends. I guess I just don’t understand why you’re hanging out with me.” I watched his face twitch at my question, so I tried to cover up how harsh I’d sounded. “I mean, I love hanging out with you, don’t get me wrong, but it’s kind of weird.”

He ran a hand through is thick curls. “I like you, Abby,” he said, and I was suddenly fearful that Alexis’s concerns about me stealing her boyfriend were closer to home than I’d thought.

I opened my mouth to protest, but he put up his hand to stop me.

“I like you as a friend,” he said, clarifying his statement. “I know we just met, but I have fun hanging out with you. I can leave if you want me to – if it’s too weird or something, but I don’t realy want to.”

“You don’t have to leave,” I said, fingering the doily on the table beneath the phone. “But you do have to tel me something about yourself.” I knew it was a poor attempt to change the subject, but it was al I had in that moment.

“What do you want to know?” he asked, and I realized he was giving me a golden opportunity.

Did you really have sex with Alexis last night?
Yeah, I so wasn’t asking that out loud.

“Tel me about your parents,” I said, hoping I wasn’t going too far with that question. “You never talk about them, and I know you do a lot for Jordan. What’s the deal?”

He crossed his arms in front of his chest, appraising me.

“We live with my dad,” he finaly said. “And my mom lives nearby.”

“What else?” I prompted.

“My dad is a workaholic, and my mom is an alcoholic. My dad’s great, but he’s sort of addicted to his job. He travels a decent amount of the time, but even when he doesn’t, he usualy works until eight or nine at night, so I pick up the slack. I’ve been doing it for a few years now.”

The fact that he didn’t elaborate on his mom’s situation wasn’t lost on me.

“How long have they been divorced?”

Connor took a long pul of his soda and leaned back against the counter. “About five years. My mom moved up here to be closer to her parents after the divorce.”

“Did your parents grow up here?”

He nodded. “Yeah, they’re both from Maine, but they ended up in Austin when my dad got a job there. My mom always hated it, so she took off as soon as the divorce was finalized.”

“You guys didn’t go with her?”

He shook his head. “No. She left Jordan and me with my dad.”

“That sucks. Are you close with her?” I asked.

“Halftime’s over,” he said, dodging my question, and I took it as my cue that our conversation was also over.

“Connor,” I said, grabbing his arm.

He looked back at me, and I could tel he was trying to hold it together. “Not now,” he said. “It’s too much. I’l tel you about it some other time, okay?”

I nodded, hoping I hadn’t pushed him too far. It hadn’t been my intention, but the questions hadn’t stopped coming. I couldn’t help wanting to know everything about him.

As the game continued, Connor’s mood visibly elevated. He was back to high-fiving me and cheering for USC. It was almost as if the conversation in the kitchen never happened. After USC puled out the win, he jumped off the couch and punched the air several times, saying ‘yes’. I jumped up to share in his enthusiasm. He grabbed me, puled me into a hug and swung me around, stil cheering. I was semi-dizzy when he set me down, but it wasn’t totaly from the spinning.

When I puled myself together I saw that he was grinning widely at me. I returned his enthusiasm. It was so cute to see him get so excited about a footbal game and much more preferable to the morose expression he bore two hours earlier.

“Man, I’m pumped! That was an awesome game,” he said, as he sank back down onto the couch. “Now, if Michigan can pul out a win tonight we’l be good.”

“There’s another game on?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, there are tons of games on today. Almost every school plays.”

“Realy?” My eyes were wide at the thought of al of this going on, and I never knew about any of it.

“Yeah, colege footbal is on al day on Saturday. It’s great.”

I wasn’t sure I could sit through another game. One was fine, but they were long games. “What time does Michigan play?” I asked.

“Not until eight. It’s the primetime game, tonight so I’m going to tape it and watch it tomorrow with my dad since I have plans with Lex.

We always watch the Michigan games together. It’s our tradition. I think he’s secretly hoping that I’l end up wanting to go to school there, but I’m pretty sold on going somewhere warm.”

“Wel, it’s warm in California,” I said, gesturing to the TV where USC was stil celebrating.